Seriously enough? Describing or analysing the Native(s)’s Point of View

On two modalities of our secularity: anthropology’s immanent frames

“…At the turn of the 1970s a new sensibility towards the collectivities researched by anthropologists was emerging, one that is still growing and evolving in our discipline. I have suggested elsewhere (Dullo 2016) a possible genealogy for the 'taking seriously' jargon in contemporary anthropology. 6 There, I addressed the acknowledgment of people's reflexivity and capacity for social critique as a consequence of postcolonial criticism, and, more recently, the ontological turn.…”

“Fata Morgana”: ancora su strabismi e asincronie

“…Presente, secondo alcuni, nella lunga durata nella storia disciplinare (Bennet 1996, Patterson 2001, Sanjek 2014, una simile propensione all'impegno e al sostegno delle prospettive e delle istanze dei gruppi con i quali l'antropologo lavora, nel corso dell'ultimo ventennio ha preso sempre più piede, suscitando dibattiti, discussioni e polemiche (Checker 2009, Low, Merry 2010, Baer 2011, Jobson 2020. Che la si sostenga (tra i molti riferimenti possibili MacClancy 2002, Eriksen 2006, Sillitoe 2015, la si critichi (ad esempio Carrier 2016, Dullo 2016, la si problematizzi (Hale 2006, Fassin 2008, Herzfeld 2010) o si cerchino strade per coniugarla con la dimensione critico-politica dell'antropologia contemporanea (Osterweil 2013, Ortner 2016) tale spinta all'impegno e al coinvolgimento (etico e politico) si è andata in qualche modo radicalizzando, portando a quel tipo di etnografia militante il cui interesse, insieme alle problematicità, sono stati sottolineati anche in un recente volume italiano (Boni, Koensler, Rossi 2020). Ciò che mi interessa qui sottolineare è, però, solo una delle conseguenze della sempre più diffusa "militantizzazione" della disciplina.…”

Humanising fascists? Nuance as an anthropological responsibility

“…To study male voters, we employed Dullo’s methodological suggestion of ‘ multiplying the points of view being analysed …. We should seek to describe and analyse the perspective of a number of Natives, and especially how they see and interact with each other’ (2016: 146). Such an approach released us from the burden of being in a constant vigilant posture of ‘relativising’ far‐right voters, which could, therefore, lead us to a nihilistic perspective.…”

“…In this research context, should we simply throw away our humanising and anti-essentialist professional endeavour? Dullo (2016) argues that research subjects tend to be taken 'seriously enough' when there is sympathy between the ethnographer's and the native's moral principles. When approaching the repugnant Other (Harding 1991), who has a different political stance from the researcher, anthropologists suspect and denounce them.…”